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Workers at Chile's Escondida reject wage offer, strike looms

Reuters - UK Focus

(Adds comments from union)

SANTIAGO, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Unionized workers at BHP Billiton-owned Escondida, the world's biggest copper mine, said on Tuesday that they rejected the company's latest wage offer and asked its workers to vote for a strike and prepare themselves for an extended conflict.

The Escondida workers' union, which represents about 2,500 laborers at the Chilean mine, has been in collective wage talks with the company since December to replace the current contract which expires at the end of January.

The union has warned that if talks with the company are unsuccessful they could go on strike.

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"The company has presented its last offer today, which eliminates or modifies a series of benefits our union has fought for and won over the years," the union said in a statement.

"Considering this, the union's board has asked all of its members to vote en masse for a legal strike and to prepare themselves for an extended conflict," it said.

"The offer is absurd," union president Patricio Tapia told Reuters.

BHP Billiton (NYSE: BBL - news) said it would not comment on the matter.

Workers will have between Jan. 27 and Jan. 31 to vote on the company's wage and benefits proposal.

According to Chilean labor law, if direct talks between the company and workers fail, both sides can then request government mediation.

Labor talks at Escondida are seen as a benchmark for the copper industry at large. The last wage talks four years ago, when copper prices were considerably higher, ended with Escondida offering each worker a bonus worth some $49,000, the highest ever offered in Chile (Stuttgart: 704599.SG - news) 's mining industry.

The company is now offering bonuses of around $12,000 per worker.

Escondida is controlled by BHP Billiton with a 57.5 percent stake, while Rio Tinto (Hanover: CRA1.HA - news) owns 30 percent. The rest is owned by Japan's JECO. The mine produced 1.15 million tonnes of copper in 2015. (Reporting by Fabian Cambero; and Anthony Esposito; Editing by Sandra Maler)